PC-Online 1998 February

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Computer Viruses: An Introduction What is a computer virus ? Well, the best definition we have been able to come up with is the following 4-part one: #1 A virus is a program that is able to replicate, that is create (possibly modified) copies of itself. #2 The replication is intentional, not just a side-effect. #3 At least some of replicants in turn are also viruses by the same definition. #4 A virus has to attach itself to a "host", in the sense that execution of the host implies execution of the virus. #1 distinguishes viruses from non-replicating malware, such as Trojans, ANSI bombs and logic Bombs. #2 distinguishes between viruses and programs such as DISKCOPY.COM that can replicate. #3 is needed to exclude certain "intended viruses", that attempt to replicate, but fail - they simply do not qualify as "real" viruses. #4 is necessary to distinguish between viruses and worms, which do not require a host. A Trojan is a program that pretends to do something useful (or at least interesting), but when it is run, it may have some harmful effect, like scrambling your FAT (File Allocation Table) or formatting the hard disk. Viruses and Trojans may contain a "time-bomb", intended to destroy programs or data on a specific date or when some condition has been fulfilled. A time bomb is often designed to be harmful, maybe doing something like formatting the hard disk. Sometimes it is relatively harmless, perhaps slowing the computer down every Friday or making a ball bounce around the screen. However, there is really no such thing as a harmless virus. Even if a virus has been intended to cause no damage, it may do so in certain cases, often due to the incompetence of the virus writer or unexpected hardware or software revisions. A virus may be modified, either by the original author or someone else, so that a more harmful version of it appears. It is also possible that the modification produces a less harmful virus, but that has only rarely happened. The damage caused by a virus may consist of the deletion of data or programs, maybe even reformatting of the hard disk, but more subtle damage is also possible. Some viruses may modify data or introduce typing errors into text. Other viruses may have no intentional effects other than just replicating. The major groups of viruses on PCs are boot sector viruses (BSV), program viruses and application viruses. A BSV infects boot sectors on diskettes and/or hard disks. On diskettes, the boot sector normally contains code to load the operating system files. The BSV replaces the original boot sector with itself and stores the original boot sector somewhere else on the diskette or simply replaces it totally. When a computer is then later booted from this diskette, the virus takes control and hides in RAM. It will then load and execute the original boot sector, and from then on everything will be as usual. Except, of course, that every diskette inserted in the computer will be infected with the virus, unless it is write-protected. A BSV will usually hide at the top of memory, reducing the amount of memory that the DOS sees. For example, a computer with 640K might appear to have only 639K. Most BSVs are also able to infect hard disks, where the process is similar to that described above, although they usually infect the master boot record instead of the DOS boot record. Program viruses, the second type of computer viruses, infect executable programs, usually .COM and .EXE files, but they sometimes also infect overlay files, device drivers or even object files. An infected program will contain a copy of the virus, usually at the end, in some cases at the beginning of the original program, and in a few cases the virus is inserted in the middle of the original program. When an infected program is run, the virus may stay resident in memory and infect every program run. Viruses using this method to spread the infection are called "Resident Viruses". Other viruses may search for a new file to infect, when an infected program is executed. The virus then transfers control to the original program. Viruses using this method to spread the infection are called "Direct Action Viruses". It is possible for a virus to use both methods of infection. Most viruses try to recognize existing infections, so they do not infect what has already been infected. This makes it possible to inoculate against specific viruses, by making the "victim" appear to be infected. However, this method is useless as a general defense, as it is not possible to inoculate the same program against multiple viruses. The third type of viruses are application viruses, which do not infect normal programs, but instead spread as "macros" in various types of files, typically word-processor documents or spreadsheets. In general, viruses are just program - rather unusual programs perhaps, but written just like any other program. It does not take a genius to write one - any average assembly language programmer can easily do it. Fortunately, few of them do. Now - to correct some common misconceptions, here are a few bits of information about what viruses cannot do. A virus cannot appear all by itself, it has to be written, just like any other program. Not all viruses are intentionally harmful - some may only cause minor damage as a side effect - however, there is no such thing as a "harmless" virus. Reading plain data from an infected diskette cannot cause an infection. (However, it is not trivial to determine what "plain data" is) A write-protected diskette cannot become infected, if the hardware is working properly. It used to be the case that a virus could not infect a computer unless it was booted from an infected diskette or an infected program was run on it, but alas, this is no longer true. It is possible for a virus infection to spread, just by the act of reading an infected Microsoft Word document, for example, or through use of Lotus Notes, to name two well-known applications. It also used to be the case that a virus could not infect data files or spread from one type of computer to another - a virus designed to infect Macintosh computers could not infect PCs or vice versa, but with the appearance of application viruses this has changed as well - there are now a few viruses that can infect WinWord as well as MacWord. Apart from using anti-virus programs, there are several ways to protect your computer from viruses: Rule #1 is: MAKE BACKUPS!!! Keep good backups (more than one) of everything you do not want to lose. This will not only protect you from serious damage caused by viruses, but is also necessary in the case of a serious hardware failure. Never boot a computer with a hard disk from a diskette because that is the only way the hard disk could become infected with a boot sector virus. (Well, strictly speaking, it can happen if you run a "dropper" program too, but that happens extremely rarely). If your BIOS allows you to change the boot sequence to "C: A:", do it. This will give you very good protection against boot sector virus infections. Should you, by accident, have left a non-bootable diskette in drive A: when you turn the computer on, the message Not a system disk. may appear. If the diskette was infected with a virus, it will now be active, but may not have infected the hard disk yet (Most boot sector viruses will do it right away, however). If this happens, remove the diskette from the A: drive and turn the computer off (or press the reset button). It is important to note that pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del is not sufficient, as a few viruses can survive that. If the computer has no hard disk, but is booted from a diskette, you should always use the same diskette, and keep it write-protected. Keep all diskettes write-protected unless you need to write to them. When you obtain new software on a diskette, write-protect the diskette before you make a backup copy of it. If it is not possible to make a backup of the diskette, because of some idiotic copy-protection, I do not recommend using the software. Be really careful regarding your sources of software. In general, shrink-wrapped commercial software should be "clean", but there have been a few documented cases of infected commercial software. Public-Domain, Freeware and Shareware packages do not have to be any more dangerous - it all depends on the source. If you obtain software from a BBS, check what precautions the SysOp takes against viruses. If he does not screen the software made available for downloading, you should find another source. Check all new software for infection before you run it for the first time. It is even advisable to use a couple of scanners from different manufacturers, as no single scanner is able to detect all viruses. Obtain Shareware, Freeware and Public-Domain software from the original author or reliable distribution sites, if at all possible. Look out for any "unusual" behavior on your computer, like: Does it take longer than usually to load programs ? Do unusual error messages appear ? Does the memory size seem to have decreased ? Do the disk lights stay on longer than they used to ? Do files just disappear ? Anything like this might indicate a virus infection. If your computer is infected with a virus - DON'T PANIC! Sometimes a badly thought out attempt to remove a virus will do much more damage than the virus could have done. If you are not sure what to do, leave your computer turned off until you find someone to remove the virus for you. Finally, remember that some viruses may interfere with the disinfection operation if they are active in memory at that time, so before attempting to disinfect you MUST boot the computer from a CLEAN system diskette. It is also a good idea to boot from a clean system diskette before scanning for viruses, as several "stealth" viruses are very difficult do detect if they are active in memory during virus scanning.